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Talk:Poverty Pictures segments
Series I started this page because I realized that we don't really know much about these cartoons... I know they're called "Poverty Q", etc, but I don't know why they're called that. It probably says something about it in Street Gang, but that's at home so I can't look at it right now. :) Anyway, I thought I'd do the classic wiki move of starting the page and then seeing if other people are interested in filling it out. Are these all Cliff Roberts? How many are there? When were they made? And why are they called Poverty? etc. -- Danny (talk) 20:34, March 19, 2010 (UTC) :Actually, it doesn't discuss it in Street Gang (or the 40th anniversary book). The only animated and film pieces acknowledged in Street Gang are Jim Henson's films and some of the stuff from the first week. The only place I know of that uses those "Poverty" titles are the "first season show content" files at the CTW archives. Though if you type in "poverty" in the search engine at sesamestreet.org the A and K segments show up. --Minor muppetz 01:14, March 20, 2010 (UTC) ::The nhk guides label them that way too, and I didn't realize it was an actual specific set of animations until I saw it frequently there, and in the CTW archive stuff. It definitely seems like an internal label...I mean why would you say that to your audience? Thanks for making the page--it felt a little weird to label them "poverty" on the episode page without any attempt at explanation. -- Kate 01:23, March 20, 2010 (UTC) :::I swear I read something somewhere that mentioned that the animation studio who made these was called "Poverty Pictures" or something like that. I just know Andrew will give us a better answer as soon as he sees this. -- Ken (talk) 02:00, March 20, 2010 (UTC) ::::Not a lot I can add, unfortunately, though it's pretty unlikely that they're all Cliff Roberts. Here are two answers, though. Ken is right, the studio was called Poverty Pictures. They mostly did commercials and are mentioned here and there in industry books on art direction or film, and are otherwise obscure (in the 60s, literally scores of animation or design houses, especially in New York, opened up to handle the commercial and industrial market and often cartoony print ads as well; inevitably either the artists or the studios both often wound up doing Sesame inserts as well, and indeed Edith Zornow and others often pointed that fact out with pride when discussing the Sesame Commercials). So that explains the name. As for when, that's pretty clear if not exact. They started airing in 1969, and the studio was around and established enough to gain recognition for a major spot in a 1968 journal. So either 68 or 69. That's about all, but a page rename would be in order, to "Poverty Pictures" (ala Buzzco Associates, Inc. or Magnetic Dreams Animation Studio. If I turn up anything else, I'll be sure to park it here. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 05:23, March 21, 2010 (UTC) :::::I should also note, by the way, that the scant references I can find to the studio are between 1968 and 1970, which could mean several things. One, they folded, or two, they changed their name, both of which were commonplace. Anyway, I'm in the process of rewriting the page with the scant confirmed facts. -- Andrew Leal (talk) 05:36, March 21, 2010 (UTC) ::::::Did they do the Speech Balloon ones too, or was that somebody else? -- Ken (talk) 01:09, March 22, 2010 (UTC) :::::::Hooray! Finally we know why those sketches are called Poverty Q etc. I've been wondering about that for a while. So, the article title: I'd like to have a title that expresses that it's a series of animations, so it can go in the Animated Sketches category and we can link to it from the episode pages... Maybe Poverty Pictures sketches? or Poverty Pictures segments? cartoons? inserts? I don't know what sounds best. -- Danny (talk) 18:46, March 22, 2010 (UTC) ::::::::We use "segments" for Sesame Street Letter Segments and Sesame Street Number Segments, so that seems as good a title as any. —Scott (talk) 00:41, March 25, 2010 (UTC) Okay, I changed to Poverty Pictures segments... I think that works. The page still needs some love, but this is a good start. Hooray! -- Danny (talk) 01:03, March 25, 2010 (UTC)